A Talk With Chaos
by Echoing Fantasy
Summary: It had taken seeing him in his adult form for Haru to realize that he was no baby, and this was no game. He was mafia, and she was a puppet.


_A Talk With Chaos_

She had been shocked, to say the least.

Once upon a time she would have insisted it was a fairy tale wrought by Reborn's evil 'older brother' Tsuna, or that he was just playing a game or something along those lines. And yet standing there staring at the man that had once been a baby, there had been no mistake. The aura around him was different now, cold and callous, and looking into those jaded black eyes she had seen a man who was very willing to lift that gun, take aim and fire on the first person that tried to attack his family.

He was no longer a baby, but he wasn't just a man either. He was _mafia_, pure and simple. The very definition of the word seemed to fit him, and watching him walk away, hell just watching him _move_ had sent tremors of fear down her spine. This man, this once-baby could kill without batting a single eye. But he didn't. He beat up on his useless student, smirking and letting loose smart remarks all the while. He played the game of the children while they remained young, gradually stepping it up to an adult's pace as they began to grow. He was manipulating them, playing them like puppets on a single string.

It wasn't long after that that Haru began to wonder if _she_ was one of those puppets. Did he control her as well? What about Kyoko? They had been to the future; they had seen what the boys had seen, and played a minor role in the defeat of Byakuran. Would he one day drag them into the mess as well? Or would he watch from the shadows and control their movements through soft persuasion and softer threats?

Nightmares began to plague her; she would wake up thinking there was someone pressing a gun to her head or her neck, and scream out, begging him to _stop_ and _reconsider._ Her dreams always consisted of the same person, the same image, and no matter how she fought against it, it soon became too much.

And so she sought him out; the one person capable of ending the nightmares once and for all - whether by bullet or by speech, she did not know. She just prayed that he wouldn't dismiss her or ignore her pleas.

But Reborn had been waiting for her it seemed, because she turned up in the dead of night at the Sawada house, and the door swung open just as she was fixing to knock on it. He stood there, looking like the devil himself, and offered his hand to her like the snake offering Eve the apple.  
"_Chaos_, Haru. Why don't you come inside? You and I should talk," he said it with a smile on his lips, not mocking for once, only inviting. Persuasive, and eerily gentle.

She could only hope that he would treat her as kindly as he did the rest of his puppets as she stepped inside, the door swinging shut silently behind her.

* * *

"So," Reborn begins as he stirs his coffee, "What's ailing you, my dear?" They're in the kitchen now, seated across from one another, and Haru is suddenly aware of the fact that she and he are _alone, _and he could easily snap her in half like a twig. She trembles at the thought.

To her surprise, he chuckles darkly. "Haru, if I wanted to snap you in half, I would have done it before you _ever _saw me like this. I would have done it before you were even aware of Byakuran. But I haven't yet. Which means that more than likely I won't. Now, I believe we were talking about you?" And he sips the hot drink, ignoring the steam rising from it – or perhaps he's just too used to it to care.

She swallows nervously, hands folding, unfolding and refolding in her lap. "I-I…I want to know the truth, Reborn-san." She whispers, unsure of where to begin. Her teachers always told her that if she didn't know where to start, start with a question. "A-are you manipulating me or Kyoko? Do you plan to bring us into the mafia business?"

He is silent for a long time, and for Haru it's a tense moment where all she can do is pray that he doesn't lie to her face or tell her something he doesn't mean. She wants the truth of the matter, even if that truth means giving something up. At long last he answers, finishing up his coffee and standing to get himself another cup. "Yes. I confess, it was a decision that took quite a bit of thinking on my part. But in the end, I decided that you two would be safer here."

"Safer?" Haru asks, her heart feeling like it's on its last legs. She suddenly twice as frightened as before because the knowledge of _he plans to bring me here _and _I'm going to be seeing him more _is running rampant in her head, and it's taking all her liquid courage not to throw something at him and dive out the window.

"Yes. I hate to tell you this, Haru, but _I _am not the most dangerous being alive. Although I am one of them." He smirks, narcissistic for a moment before the smirk fades. "There are many Families out there that would love nothing more than to shoot down one of my idiotic student's closest companions to 'teach him a lesson', as it were. So to avoid that, Tsuna and I-"

"Tsuna-kun is in on this too?!" Now she's outraged. She feels betrayed and hurt by his decision, and his lack of telling her. Reborn obviously understands this. He nods, and continues as though she hasn't interrupted him. "Tsuna and I have decided to bring you, Kyoko and anyone else who is outside the Family _into _the Family as spies. You'll receive training from Lal and the CEDEF, who you will be working closely with. It will keep you inside most of the time, and you will be surrounded by people who can hold their own if the shit hits the fan."

"Does Kyoko-chan know?" She wails, clutching her head and ducking it down between her knees. She suddenly feels so very vulnerable, so small and scared. All she wants to do is wake up from this hellish nightmare, but that's obviously not going to happen anytime soon.

Reborn ponders it a moment. "Yes, I believe Ryohei and Chrome explained it to her…a day and a half ago." He sips his espresso.

Haru is crumbling. Her world is shattered by the realization that she, who trusted Tsuna and Kyoko and everyone else before, has been deceived and lied to all this time. They were planning this from the start, and didn't even bother to tell her!

The older male reads her expression easily. "It's not entirely their fault. Sometimes in order to keep someone safe, you need to stay silent for awhile. Kyoko was acting on my and Tsuna's orders – we _asked _her not to tell you." Finding his cup empty, he stands and moves to refill it. "It's difficult to explain, but the world of the mafia is a place where both ignorance and knowledge can get you killed. Know too little, and you're tossed aside as useless. Know too much, and you're shot to keep silent. In our case, we had to prevent enemies keeping tabs on us from realizing that you and Kyoko were being brought into the Family."

Somehow despite her fear of him, the words he speaks bring a halfhearted comfort to her mind. She sees that Tsuna's reason for keeping her out of the loop so long was not because he liked Kyoko more and didn't care about Haru, but because he was trying to keep them safe.

"He has it rough, doesn't he?"

Reborn nods, not needing to ask who 'he' is. "He does. And it's only going to get worse from here on out. Things are beginning to shift, and more and more people will begin showing up in Namimori. Some will be recruited, others will be shot. Either way, the childhood days of fun and laughter are now over. It's time to grow up."

He polishes off the last of his espresso, and then rinses the cup out well. "There's a spare futon in the cupboard next to Tsuna's room. The bathroom is down the hall; your toothbrush and feminine things are already in there, including a spare set of pajamas you can wear until we can get you new ones."

"You knew I'd come here." Haru realizes. Strangely she can't bring herself to get angry.

Reborn smirks mysteriously. "I'm not the number one hitman for nothing, you know." And with that sole parting shot he's gone, vanishing down the hall and into Tsuna's room. Silence descends, broken when Haru decides it's time to stop sitting there like a bump on a log and go to sleep. She uses the bathroom to change and clean up, then grabs the extra futon and makes herself comfortable in the living room. To her surprise Kyoko is already there, curled up in a nearby corner sound asleep.

Watching her best friend sleep so deeply, Haru realizes that her childhood has indeed come to an end. She curls up beside her, some instinct telling her to sleep facing the door. She gets comfortable, and then lets sleep take her.

Just before she falls asleep, she remembers that Hana knows Tsuna as well. It's only a matter of time then, before the older girl gets dragged into this mess as well.

_Oh well. At least if we're going to Hell, we're all going together._


End file.
